Significant Ups and Downs on an Entertaining Ride - A Review of Vision Divine's 9 Degrees West of the Moon

Italian sextet Vision Divine convincingly plays progressive power metal on its sixth studio album 9 Degrees West of the Moon.

The six gentlemen from Massa in Tuscany start the record with the epic ''Letter to My Child Never Born'' that could easily come from a band such as Dream Theater or Fates Warning. This track features extended instrumental sections with calm, introspective and relaxing sections that are opposed to energetic, exciting and expressive up-tempo passages. The versatile keyboard and piano passages stand out in particular in this song. The gripping guitar riffs and passionate guitar solos are also executed with great care and talent. The rhythm section around bass guitar and drums adds pace and rhythm at the right moments to keep this ambitious song entertaining through nine minutes. The lead vocals by Fabio Lione of Rhapsody of Fire fame are always energizing, heartfelt and variable. Right from the start, this album opens with a genuine masterpiece.

Even though the rest of the album can't quite keep up with the quality of the opener, there are still several great tracks to be found. ''Violet Loneliness'' for instance has a mellower and softer side and could be described as power ballad in the key of Japanese visual key bands such as X Japan for instance. It doesn't come as a surprise that Vision Divine has covered said band in the past and is particularly popular in Japan.

However, this album isn't without its flaws since it loses much steam towards the end. Title track ''9 Degrees West of the Moon'' is quite anticlimactic for instance and too tame, slow and short to leave any lasting impression. The final two tracks are fillers in form of the decent cover of Judas Priest's ''A Touch of Evil'' that however doesn't equal the atmosphere, conviction and energy of the original version and a demo song that is either ''Fading Shadow'' on the European editions or ''Fly'' on the Japanese editions.

The worst offender and obvious elephant in the room is however ''The Killing Speed of Time''. This song enters thrash metal territory with some death metal vocal stylistics and it sounds absolutely horrible. The track sounds rushed, fake and exaggerated at all time. The riffs sound like something a very bad Slayer cover band would play while the vocals induce headaches as the singer is lacking balance, focus and talent for this genre. The band tried an experiment that was bound to fail. The sextet is great at playing progressive power metal but thrash or death metal certainly isn't for them at all.

At the end of the day, the positive elements still outweigh the negatives ones and make for a good to at times very good progressive power metal release. If the band had cut the final three songs as well as the horrible experiment, 9 Degrees West of the Moon would have actually been an excellent genre highlight. As it is now, this record features significant ups and downs and makes for an entertaining ride that will leave nobody unbothered.

Final Rating: 70%